NFL Ratings are Way Down

[HercDude 264]

A brief discussion on why NFL ratings (along with every other sport) are down this year:

https://www.si.com/extra-mustard/2020/10/14/sports-cable-news-ratings-2020

 

Reader's Digest version - it's an election year and there is a pandemic, so people are watching FoxNews, CNN, and MSNBC instead of sports.  If you, personally, watched any of those channels instead of the World Series, punch yourself in the dick.

 

 

[HuggyU2 2,100]

3 hours ago, HercDude said:

If you, personally, watched any of those channels instead of the World Series, punch yourself in the dick.

I'll pass.  

I didn't know the World Series was ongoing until they had played Game 3.  I simply do not give two shits.  

When does the NFL season start? 

[HuggyU2 2,100]

On 10/30/2020 at 8:59 PM, Magnum said:

They are either directed or published on an Air Force PA approved list.

To be clear, they must all be on the SAF/PA approved list.  

I've seen very few flyovers "directed from above".  Normally, they are put on the SAF/PA list and units volunteer.  If no one volunteers, they usually don't get flown.  Yes, there are exceptions.  

[Pooter 214]

Flyovers are excellent training and I don't care who you are or what you fly.  Simply being able to be at a specific place at a specific time has more real world combat implications than any BFM larping you'd rather be doing.

[di1630 976]

Flyovers are excellent training and I don't care who you are or what you fly.  Simply being able to be at a specific place at a specific time has more real world combat implications than any BFM larping you'd rather be doing.

Yeah, it’s pretty damn rough with INS/GPS to hit an uncontested TOT these days. I say we dedicate missions to it..maybe a phase. Reminds me of the time in the ‘stan, there I was, EGI failure...no sh-t...checking my g-shock watch hoping I had the skills to make that TOT to the tanker +\- 10 min with quartering headwinds so strong, I had to wind correct.


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[HuggyU2 2,100]

On 11/2/2020 at 12:03 AM, di1630 said:

Yeah, it’s pretty damn rough with INS/GPS to hit an uncontested TOT these days. 

It certainly can be. 

One of the more difficult flyovers I led was for 2008 Air Force Week in LA.  We held over the Rose Bowl.  Because of LAX airspace, our initial inbound heading was roughly south, with a pylon turn to the west around downtown IVO East Los Angeles, for a westerly run in.  Although the video looks like it is bright, it wasn't.  In fact it was post sunset (we had a waiver).  The downtown lights were very bright, and the Coliseum lights are pointed down and in, and don't show up until the last portion of the run in.  Staying below LA's Class B with the huge amount of lighting in the area added to the difficulty.  

This was 12 years ago, and yes, GPS existed.   But due to the non-linear IP-to-target run, the intricacies of SoCal approach and the potential flex of the Anthem, it was quite dynamic.  And we are flying the A-model, not the C-model with whatever bells, whistles and HUD it has.  

We did extensive route study, timing contingencies, etc... and we trained like it was a "GPS-degraded environment".  I suppose we could have laid down 99 waypoints on the curvilinear route we flew... but we didn't.  We used a Sectional, LA TAC chart, and some aerial photos.  

Once the flyover was done, due to LAX congestion, we managed to get sequenced into the LAX traffic flow, did 2 night wing landings, well after sunset, in black jets, to 25L.  Everybody involved in the evolution, including an F-16 pilot, TPS graduate, and a lot of high-time instructors, felt a good sense of accomplishment.  The intricacies of completing the flyover included getting the formation to EDW, and getting the jets safely on the ground at LAX's FBO.  We knew we were going to break a number of rules to get it done, and we got the waivers from HQ so we could do it.  ALL OF THAT COORDINATION  is part of making it successful... not just the last 10 miles of the run-in.  

Anyone can scoff doing flyovers if you want.  And maybe my geekery combined with the fact I don't drop bombs gives me no "real world relevance".  But I've done shitloads over the years and found ways to challenge myself on all of them.  And I'm a better pilot for it.  

 

[TreeA10 550]

Fortunately, I wasn't involved in this but....In the late 80s, some of my fellow T-38 IPs were going to do a flyover for the Mississippi State - Arkansas State Football game in Starkville MS.  I didn't think too much about it when I was walking in the BX and saw the 4 ship come up initial after the flyby and pitch out other than, "Damn, that looks like some really low clouds for the overhead to be open.  Must be an optical illusion."

Well, Tuesday, the local paper comes out and there is this huge picture on the front page.  There is a band geek in the foreground of the picture with his big fuzzy hat and a trumpet with the T-38 4 ship in the background.  The 4 ship was in a 20-30 degree left bank and look really, really close because you can make out panels and markings detail but I'm thinking it's a photo trick using f-stop settings.

A week or two goes by and then this cast of characters from Randolph show up conducting an investigation about the flyby.  The investigation got started when some fan of flybys in the stands sent a "that was awesome" letter to Randolph with the newspaper picture enclosed.

So, here's what happened.  The weather was marginal at best but probably below mins.  Our intrepid heroes, SQ CC in the backseat of #1, not wanting to disappoint the fans decided to press.  It's a south to north run planned to cross at the end of the anthem.  They depart the IP on time and the nose gunner picks up stadium lights slightly left of the nose so they check a little left and continue.  As they get closer to the lights, they realize it's tennis court lights and not the stadium then find the stadium well right of the nose.  They commence an aggressive right hand turn to solve the offset but immediately have to do a left hand turn to make it over the stadium.  In this alignment maneuver, they don't notice they are descending.

The end result was they barely cleared the top of the stadium.  I don't recall actual height other than they were low.  Some folks in the top row claim they were eye level but I find that difficult to believe.  All the pilots came clean and admitted it was a mistake so nobody was summarily executed and all went on to successful careers.

As icing on the cake, the Mississippi State Bulldogs Football team, put together a commercial to promote interest and fire up the fan base and wouldn't you know it, there was video of the very low flyby and it appears at the end of the commercial.  So we got to see that a couple times a week.

So, flybys require some serious decision making on the fly, create pressure to get the job done, promote service awareness, and offer the opportunity to excel...or not.  Excellent training in my opinion.

[Tank 230]

Nothing beats this flyover.  
Too bad the flight lead took the hit so that the rest of the formation was spared...

[BashiChuni 1,097]

1 hour ago, Tank said:

Nothing beats this flyover.  
Too bad the flight lead took the hit so that the rest of the formation was spared...

Too bad? I'd say rightfully so.

[Boomer6 47]

2 hours ago, Tank said:

Nothing beats this flyover.  
Too bad the flight lead took the hit so that the rest of the formation was spared...

I guess if by spared you mean they all had CC directed Q3s to include a brand new FAIP sitting in one of the PITs, then yeah good on #1 for putting together a nice flyover as his fini before leaving AD.

[VMFA187 220]

On ‎11‎/‎1‎/‎2020 at 9:43 PM, Pooter said:

Flyovers are excellent training and I don't care who you are or what you fly.  Simply being able to be at a specific place at a specific time has more real world combat implications than any BFM larping you'd rather be doing.

That's exactly what BFM is. Putting yourself in the precise piece of sky at a specific time in relation to another aircraft in order to employ weapon(s).

TOT's are easy.

[Tank 230]

3 hours ago, Boomer6 said:

I guess if by spared you mean they all had CC directed Q3s to include a brand new FAIP sitting in one of the PITs, then yeah good on #1 for putting together a nice flyover as his fini before leaving AD.

CC directed Q3’s are better than an FEB and losing your wings...

You are correct though, sucks that 2-4 received anything at all considering they were following 1.

Edited November 3, 2020 by Tank

[di1630 976]

Anyone can scoff doing flyovers if you want. 
[/url]  

Damn Huggy, did you follow the concrete arrows along your XC route? My grandad told me about them.

All kidding aside, I’ve been on f-ed up flyovers. Even porked one myself (I’ll blame the anthem singer).

But I’ll stand by my argument that nailing a TOT has very little training value for fighters in 2020.




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[Magnum 83]

On 11/1/2020 at 10:43 PM, Pooter said:

Flyovers are excellent training and I don't care who you are or what you fly.  Simply being able to be at a specific place at a specific time has more real world combat implications than any BFM larping you'd rather be doing.

Every day I hit the start of my airspace time at the entry point I'm at a specific place at a specific time.

[HuggyU2 2,100]

7 hours ago, VMFA187 said:

TOT's are easy.

Sure they are.  Here's an easy flyover by some of your Hornet buddies using GPS, INS, and all sorts of cool fighter shit... and still over 10 seconds late.  

But at least they get style points for going slower than I can do in a Cirrus.  

OBTW, they both got FENAB'd (FEB, in AF speak) and never flew Navy jets again.  The guy I know fortunately landed on his feet and has a great flying gig.  The other guy got a seriously bad deal, and I don't know what happened to him after the Navy.  

Edited November 4, 2020 by HuggyU2

[HuggyU2 2,100]

5 hours ago, di1630 said:

All kidding aside, I’ve been on f-ed up flyovers. Even porked one myself (I’ll blame the anthem singer).

As an airshow announcer, I've got a fool-proof method for ensuring the flyovers are on time at my airshows.  It's so easy, even a fighter pilot can hit the TOT.  

[VMFA187 220]

12 hours ago, HuggyU2 said:

Sure they are.  Here's an easy flyover by some of your Hornet buddies using GPS, INS, and all sorts of cool fighter shit... and still over 10 seconds late.  

But at least they get style points for going slower than I can do in a Cirrus.  

OBTW, they both got FENAB'd (FEB, in AF speak) and never flew Navy jets again.  The guy I know fortunately landed on his feet and has a great flying gig.  The other guy got a seriously bad deal, and I don't know what happened to him after the Navy.  

I can't watch the video because I'm on NIPR but being given a TOT and nailing it is different than trying to guess when a performer is going to take the stage, how long she'll protract portions of the song, etc... There are variables that the pilots have no control over. 

[HuggyU2 2,100]

2 hours ago, VMFA187 said:

...being given a TOT and nailing it is different than trying to guess when a performer is going to take the stage, how long she'll protract portions of the song...

Thank you!  You've made my point.  "These are different", and the mission planning can bring in other factors that you won't encounter in Afghanistan.  To include not having GPS coordinates for a flyover.  

Even if you're a shit-hot bomb dropper, you'll probably never drop a bomb in LAX's Class B Airspace... but you will need to account for some other things during the multitude of phone calls you'll have with SoCal approach if you're going to do a flyover without getting violated.  

 

 

 

[Danger41 1,197]

18 hours ago, HuggyU2 said:

Sure they are.  Here's an easy flyover by some of your Hornet buddies using GPS, INS, and all sorts of cool fighter shit... and still over 10 seconds late.  

But at least they get style points for going slower than I can do in a Cirrus.  

OBTW, they both got FENAB'd (FEB, in AF speak) and never flew Navy jets again.  The guy I know fortunately landed on his feet and has a great flying gig.  The other guy got a seriously bad deal, and I don't know what happened to him after the Navy.  

Did they get FENAB for doing the flyby with their gear down?

[VMFA187 220]

2 hours ago, Danger41 said:

Did they get FENAB for doing the flyby with their gear down?

They were too low (I just reviewed the video). I remember talking about it with fellow aviators. Unfortunately you can't be a fighter pilot anymore. 

We were told we couldn't come in for the break when we were flying missions out of Isa Air Base because they were 8 hours long and leadership thought we would be too tired to handle the 3Gs and it wouldn't be safe. I was the only PMCF qual'd pilot on AM crew so I took a jet from maintenance, flew overhead doing the required check profiles for 30 minutes, came in for the break and was subsequently grounded. 

[Lord Ratner 1,103]

On 11/4/2020 at 7:03 PM, VMFA187 said:

They were too low (I just reviewed the video). I remember talking about it with fellow aviators. Unfortunately you can't be a fighter pilot anymore. 

We were told we couldn't come in for the break when we were flying missions out of Isa Air Base because they were 8 hours long and leadership thought we would be too tired to handle the 3Gs and it wouldn't be safe. I was the only PMCF qual'd pilot on AM crew so I took a jet from maintenance, flew overhead doing the required check profiles for 30 minutes, came in for the break and was subsequently grounded. 

You took them at their word? I remember making that mistake too.

[Day Man 844]

 

[Prozac 697]

^ Fitting, considering who was at the controls. The giggling crowd members are perfect. Someone should put this on DF’s Wikipedia if it’s not there already. 

[HuggyU2 2,100]

Better timing control than some jets I've seen.  

Prozac, are you saying that's Doc Fogelsong?

Edited November 7, 2020 by HuggyU2

[Day Man 844]

1 hour ago, HuggyU2 said:

Prozac, are you saying that's Doc Fogelsong?

it is...